Taurus is everyone's favorite whipping boy, but I've got three revolvers and they are among the best I've owned and that includes Smith and Ruger. I carry my M85UL stainless ALL the time, love the thing, always goes bang. It's got 6 or 8 K through it and is like new, no slop, times great, shoots 3" groups at 25 yards (as good as any snub I've ever owned). It's a pleasure to carry at 17 ounces and didn't break the bank.
I've got both an early Taurus 66 (4in. blue) and a blue 92AF that I purchased between '88 and '91.
They have both been shot heavily. You might even say that the 92 was abused at having over 30,000 rounds through it. It wasn't. I put new springs in the 92 at about 25k rounds. The 66 still bangs away like precision clockwork, after 10,000 rounds of mixed .357/.38. The trigger breaks likes glass.
I'm a fan.
Yeah, I bought a 3" Taurus 66, older lock work, for $180 at a gun show. This thing has been fired enough that the original Pachmayr Gripper it had on it, the faux checkering on the back of the grip was worn smooth from recoil. Yet, the gun is tight and times perfectly and puts 6 rounds of its favorite ammo into 1.5" at 25 yards. FANTASTIC old shooter, worn finish from being carried. I suspect it was a security guard gun or something in a past life what with all the holster wear.
I have a 4" nickel M66, later transfer bar lockwork, but pre-lock, that is the absolute BEST medium frame revolver I've ever owned in .357. It beats the M19 Smith, the Security Six, and the Rossi 971 I had. It's tight, built stronger than the K frame Smith, no flat spot on the forcing cone, more beef in the frame.It shoots tight little 1" 25 yard groups off sand bags with .38 or .357. The Ruger's design was a little stronger, but it was not very accurate with .38 special. The Taurus has a better out of the box trigger than the Ruger had, though I did a nice job on that Ruger's trigger. The Taurus trigger compares very favorably to any Smith K frame.
Say what you want, believe what you will, but I ain't selling ANY of my Taurus revolvers. I'm really not much of an autoloader shooter, so I've never owned a Taurus autoloader, but if they made something I wanted, I'd buy one.